Sunday, December 1, 2013

Literacy Spanning the U.S.

Pamela
Cornelison embarked on a mission nearly five years ago: to help the people of
Merced County learn how to read and write English.Without those basic skills,
the 69-year-old Mercedian said, people get left behind.“Sometimes all it takes
is that feeling of hope,” said Cornelison, the county library’s literacy
program coordinator. “No one deserves to be left behind, no matter what they’ve
done in their lives.”Seeing the critical need to help adults gain literacy
skills, Cornelison launched the Merced County Library’s Read and Succeed-Merced Adult Literacy Program. The free program started with just two people –
Cornelison and one learner. Now it’s grown to more than 200 trained tutors, 400
adult students, and 22 people on the waiting list.The students come from all
walks of life, Cornelison noted, from an 80-year-old grandmother who wants to
break the cycle of poverty to a 16-year-old who dropped out of school after winding up in jail.READ MORE !

I
began thinking about the issue years ago, while working as a reporter in
Birmingham, Ala. During my time there, I wrote an article about a weekly
program that provided single mothers with a children’s book at the end of every
session they attended; during these sessions, the women read the book and
discussed the themes and plot points they might discuss with their kids.

. . .....

Unsurprisingly,
many of Schenectady’s adults are also struggling. According to Sylvia Jimison,
executive director of Literacy Volunteers of America - Mohawk/Hudson Region,
there are 65,000 adults in the Capital Region who read at or below fifth-grade
level. The organization provides free, one-on-one tutoring throughout the area
(full disclosure: I volunteer for them), and Jimison said there’s always a need
for volunteers, especially in Schenectady.

. . .....

Poor
literacy is a hidden problem — one that rarely gets enough attention. But the
consequences are far from hidden. We see and hear about them everyday, in the
form of high school dropouts and adults who aren’t prepared for the workforce. READ MORE !

Lecester
Johnson, a longtime passionate advocate for adult education and local workforce
development in Washington, D.C., will be honored as Georgetown’s 2014 John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award recipient early next year.

As the
executive director of the Academy of Hope (AOH), Johnson has been a strong
force for adult education and workforce development for the past two decades.
She has led AOH, which has locations in some of the city's underserved areas,
for more than seven years and will transition it into an adult charter school
next fall.READ MORE !